I am currently staying with my girlfriend's family. Yesterday my girlfriend's cousin visited us. This cousin (a young lady) is 18 years old. Her boyfriend is a programmer (just like my girlfriend and myself). Imagine what she said! She said that as I am now 35 years old, I am already an "oldie" and if I lose my current job, I won't get a new job any more since my programming knowledge is "outdated" and I lack the programming expertise which the younger ones have.

As I am far younger than most demosceners, does this mean that the demoscene is a bunch of old farts who once were considered great programmers but nowadays would not have any chance at the job market?

I don't think so, but apparently, that's what the younger generation thinks about us!

nowadays the demoscene its about the people who feel connected to it and each other. sure there are still productions being done but as the initial poster said that could be done in various other contexts as well.
so the demoscene is a bunch of people who feel connected because they like spinning cubes and old floppies.

I haven't been part of the demoscene much, but it's always fascinated me... and I feel like what drives me is often adjacent to demoscene goals. For me, it's all about constraints, and how they encourage creativity by means of limiting options. It's about pushing boundaries, and trying to do what seems impossible within the constraints set.

This is obviously true for the historical demoscene, with constraints set by the target hardware/platform, limiting e.g. your compute or graphical capabilities, and with tricks to work around or exceed those limitations. It is also true about intros, where the driving constraint is filesize. I think it also applies to a lot of wild demos, where you accomplish a feat that is technically impressive, and often either seem target an obscure platform (where you might be constrainted by the understanding of the platform, and lack of tooling for it), or otherwise make up its own constraints to adhere to.

Prophet: Trouble is, until the end of the 20s, tech employees are in a phase of life where they are more likely to accept being exploited by employers. Also preferences for routine processes are pretty weak, thus "new" concepts are not being critically analyzed. Furthermore, the older/wiser the employees get, they also have rising expectations of comfort and a "healthy" life/work balance. Employers do not like that. Either you are a fully functioning tool, or they go get a new one. Oh and if you do not have some kind of degree/highest level of education, as soon as you crossed the magic line of 40, you are doomed. Exceptions are possible, but all forementioned should apply to a vast majority of people.

The demoscene is also about strong friendship too. I count the vast majority of people within the Atari scene as being friendly to the point of being able to discuss deep life-issues with them and I also extend the same to a growing number of sceners who started on other platforms originally.

As well as getting a natural high when at a demoparty and seeing the compo entries on the big screen - all achieved maybe with the help of a bit of wine rather than beer in my case but there we go :)